Another Kind of Hurricane Read Online Free PDF Page B

forever.
    Zavion’s guilt stretched right along with it. He had stolen those chocolate bars. He had. Zavion himself. The one who prided himself on Taking Care Of, and Looking Out For, and Being In Control.
    And now—
    He was ashamed. He was Letting People Down, Making Bad Decisions, and—
    Out.
    Of.
    Control.
    His knee began to shake wildly. He couldn’t make it stop.
    His house was gone. His things were gone. There was rain. There was too much rain. There was a dead body. Images flew through Zavion’s mind like he was running a race. He needed to stop them. He needed to focus.
    On one thing.
    Now.
    How was he going to repay Luna Market?

chapter 12

HENRY
    There was no way Henry was going to school. He couldn’t face anyone there. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate in math on percentages, or in science about solids and liquids.
    On instinct he headed for Wayne’s house.
    The middle of the trail between Henry and Wayne’s went through a red pine grove. It was like walking on an old carpet. Henry’s boots stopped snapping and shuffling, and he could hear the birds chasing after the wind, and the squirrels scraping their claws up and down the bark of the trees. He always loved this place, the quietest place on earth, the place that brought him straight to Wayne’s.
    “Out of the way!” a voice screamed from behind him.
    Okay, not quiet today
.
    Henry jumped, Brae jumped, and Henry swore the trees jumped too. He turned around. His up-the-hill neighbor, Nopie Lyons, bombed down the trail on his bike. His hair was in hiseyes, a huge backpack pushed his chest onto the bike frame, and silver boots came up over his pants. He looked like a cross between a turtle and an electric mixer. Nopie was a freak of nature, and he was coming straight at Henry.
    Henry dove out of the way just in time.
    “You’re going the wrong way for school, Nopie!” Henry yelled as Nopie sped away.
    Brae loped after Nopie.
    “C’mon, Brae,” called Henry. “Stay with me.” He remembered the last time he had seen Nopie. The time before the funeral. “Please stay with me.”

chapter 13

ZAVION
    “Does it have a bathroom?” Zavion leaned over to whisper to Papa.
    Joe had driven them over the Sunshine Bridge and Skeet had picked them up and brought them the rest of the way here.
    “Of course it has a bathroom. Two of them. And good water pressure too,” came a loud voice from above their heads.
    A strong, minty smell came along with it. Not the sweet smell of gum or peppermint candy, but the sharp, fresh smell of real mint. Zavion turned his head. A woman with thick glasses, long gray dreadlocks, and knitting needles in her hands leaned over the railing of the stairs behind him. The needles were moving fast. A long scarf dangled by her side.
    “The bathrooms are both blue,” she said. “Very soothing. Easy to be in there when you have to do your business.”
    “You remember Ms. Cyn, Ben?” said Skeet.
    “Of course. Hello, Ms. Cyn,” said Papa. He stood on his toes to give the woman a kiss on the cheek.
    “Hello, Ben,” Ms. Cyn said, tapping Papa on the nose with her knitting needles and continuing down the stairs.
    Zavion looked around the room. Sleeping bags covered the floor and the two couches and even a chair. The walls were bare except for a large cloth banner of a boy sitting at the base of a tree reading a book. Just above his lap, another book floated open in the air. And above that, where the branches started in the tree, a sort of half-book, half-bird floated again. Then, finally, a bird, wings outstretched, flew high in the sky. Written across the tree, in letters that sat hanging from the branches like fruit, was the word
gratitude
.
    Zavion recognized the painting style. The banner was one of Skeet’s.
    How cool would it be to jump into the banner? To be the book? To jump, fly, up, up, turn into a book-bird, fly some more, higher and higher, until he was a real bird, wings wide, soaring in the sky?
    “You ever